


The Happiest of Holidays

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Engagement, F/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 07:58:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5531801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now that Tentoo and Rose are traveling in a TARDIS again, she wonders what it means for their relationship and questions overshadow her happiness. Little does she know, the Doctor has a Christmas Eve surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Happiest of Holidays

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry not sorry, this is totally cheesy fluff. I'm talking junk food, complete and unashamed. My goal this holiday season was to write a Christmas proposal fic. I tried with the last few, but they had other plans. ;) Merry Christmas to you all.

There was one present for Rose that the Doctor didn’t put under the tree. 

He turned the small box over and over in his dimensionally transcendent pockets as he walked back to the Tube station from the jewelers. He was feeling much more like himself now that their new TARDIS was fully functional. She was still small, but she would grow the more they exposed her to the vortex. They had taken small trips here and there, mainly picking up tech he couldn’t get here on earth. For example, he had already vastly improved the sonic Rose had found in Donna’s pocket universe.

They had yet to save the entire universe, but had saved a few planets. Earth once already, with Torchwood’s help, which he begrudgingly admitted was not the _worst_ job he’d ever had. For example, he could afford the special present in his pocket. A gift that would impact the trajectory of the rest of their lives. 

 

\-----

 

Rose finished up her team meeting at headquarters and packed up for the evening. It felt weird to leave work without the Doctor, but he had left early to finish up some Christmas shopping. Her hand felt empty without his as she stepped onto the lift. The thought alone made her smile in gratitude. This time last year, she had been a month away from finding him and would have given anything for a chance to take his presence for granted the way she did now.

Still, it scared her a bit that she had fallen so hard for this him in the past 11 months. She had loved him nearly as long as she had known him, of course, way back when he was Northern and blue-eyed, but this was an entirely new level of infatuation. This him was the perfect combination of everything she had missed about his ninth and tenth selves – what she privately thought of as her first and second Doctors – and he felt more “hers” than ever.

But her happiness was tempered by the voice in her head that warned her it couldn’t stay like this forever. In their mutual pining for the stars, they had grown closer. With fewer spontaneous adventures (disasters), there was less running when things between them got intimate and all too real. Domestic Earth-bound life had pulled them together.

What would happen now that they were traveling again? She couldn’t imagine them ever regressing to their former just-friends status that had fooled no one but themselves. Not now that they had shared so much. But their dynamic of Time Lord and companion had shifted this time around. Now they were more like partners. Her knowledge of this universe’s differences and his knowledge of its similarities had given them a more equal footing. Added to their matching lifespans, it had made their romantic relationship intoxicating for a girl like Rose. As much as she adored the TARDIS and their wild life, she couldn’t bear losing what they had now. Losing him.

She shivered as she walked up the stairs to their flat. She knew him too well, she thought. He was committed to her now, but would it last? He wouldn’t mean to, but if given the opportunity, would he run away from sharing himself with her so fully as he had been forced to do this year?

 

\-----

 

She got her answer Christmas Eve. They had a cozy night in together, wrapped up in blankets and each other on the couch, drinking hot cider by the light of the tree. In the morning, they would open presents with her family at the mansion in a start to a full day of festive activity. Tonight, however, she was grateful for a quiet night alone with her Doctor. If he noticed she clung extra tight to his arms around her, he didn’t comment on it. He did kiss her temple, though, the closest part of her to his lips. She turned to face him, needing some sort of sign that this intimate bliss wasn’t about to come crashing down around her once she was his traveling companion again.

He answered her questioning eyes with a quick kiss, but all too soon he was backing away to speak. She tried to concentrate on his words instead of the worry and joy battling inside her.

“There’s one present I want you to open tonight,” he said. “While it’s just us.”

“Okay, do you want to open one of yours tonight too?” She had one for him she was planning on having him open after they were alone again tomorrow night, but she was a bit nervous about her presumption in buying it to begin with.

“Let me give you this first?” He seemed both intent and nervous, determined but still rubbing his neck and looking away sheepishly.

“Yeah.” She smiled a little in encouragement. Whatever it was, it was clearly important to him.

He searched under the tree for a small box with her name on the tag. When he returned to her, beaming and tugging at his ear with his free hand, he settled in on the floor in front of her. He looked like a puppy kneeling there, so eager to please with his grin of anticipation and big hopeful eyes. The sight of him made her want to forget the gift altogether and snog him senseless.

She resisted, however, with that familiar anxiety whispering to her to hold back, that soon his wonder would be redirected to much greater, more extraordinary things than her.

Her fingers fumbled with the paper. It wasn’t until the wrapping was completely free of the hinged velvet box that she understood what was happening in that moment. Her trembling made it difficult, but she finally popped open the lid of the box. Only then – upon seeing the perfect diamond framed on both sides by bright blue sapphires – did she meet his gaze. He was no longer sitting back on his heels patiently, but was up on one knee, taking the ring to slide it on her finger as he asked the question that changed everything:

“Rose Marion Tyler, no matter where we go in time and space, whether we’re here on Earth in this flat or at the end of the universe, _you_ are the one I want by my side. We only have one human life, Rose. Let’s spend it together. Really together. I once told you that the one thing anyone really needs to travel the universe is a hand to hold. If there’s anything I know, it’s that I want that hand to be yours and mine. Forever. As husband and wife. What I’m trying to say is… Will you marry me?”

A laugh of incredulous delight bubbled up through her happy tears. It was all she could do to nod vigorously for a moment as she found her voice.

“YES. Yes, Doctor. Yes!”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with abandon. No longer did she fear he would run away from what they had now, that he was expecting her to return to her previous companion/student/assistant-type role. They would run together, a wedded couple. No more awkward explanations or miscommunication or doubt  about who they were to each other.

He was still snogging her, but the angle was too awkward for the passion sizzling between them. He moved first onto the couch with her, then eventually over her as she lay back on the cushions. When his hands pushed under her shirt to possess her hip, she broke away, breathless.

“You still have a gift to open tonight too, remember?” she murmured, content to brush her fingers through his hair.

“We don’t have to. This one was kind of a gift for both of us.” His fringe fell forward as he leaned over her, the picture of devilish good looks and proud satisfaction.

“Oh, mine is too. Trust me, you want us to be alone for this one,” she assured him with much more confidence about her gift now.

 

\-----

 

He sat up so she could echo his earlier motion of searching around the tree for the correct present. He had no idea what she would possibly want to give him specifically while they were alone tonight, nor what she deemed a fitting follow-up to their engagement.

“This one.” She sent him a wink and a smile that told him this present was of a much less serious and much more naughty nature than the ring now gleaming from her finger.

She sucked in a breath as she handed it to him, however. Nervous. She was nervous about this present. Playful, but still hoping more than knowing he would like it.

Curious, he tossed away the light, thin paper and dug a hand down into the bag. His fingers closed around lace and silky smooth fabric. Very sheer fabric, he observed when it came into view. He held up the garments – a gorgeous teddy and a matching pair of knickers – and swallowed hard.

“Uh, thank you,” he stammered, trying to find a gentlemanly way to respond. He settled on humor. “But I don’t think they’ll fit me.”

“No, you daft alien,” she laughed affectionately. “That’s just the wrapping. Your real present is what happens when I take these, disappear behind that door-” She took back the lingerie and pointed to their bedroom. “-And come back in here. _That’s_ your full prezzie. Well, there may be more than that, but that’s up to you to decide.”

“Ah. I see. But I’m pretty sure you already know what I will decide. Don’t you?” he teased.

“Well, I have a guess, but I didn’t want to make any assumptions. Don’t know what you want till you see it, as they say.”

He didn’t say so, wanting to play along with her game, but he was confident she knew from their activities these past few months that it was a very safe assumption to make that he would most definitely be turned on by his “gift.” Just in case her hedging wasn’t all false, however, he made sure his desire was clear as he let his eyes wander down her form.

She disappeared, as promised, behind the bedroom door, leaving the Doctor to mutter to himself:

“As ‘they say,’ hm? Whoever ‘they’ is had no idea of how much I want you always, Rose Tyler.”

She emerged after what felt like an excruciatingly long time to him, but was really only a few seconds.

“So, what do you want for Christmas, Doctor?” Her sexy pose said it all. Her earlier anxiety was gone and in its place, the true Rose Tyler shone through as bright as her diamond. She was an unstoppable force, and he was happily captivated.

“Oh, yes,” he answered before realizing her question. “I mean, I’ve already gotten what I asked for. Well, that is… There is one more thing.”

“And what’s that?” she asked as she approached him, moving her hips in a way that made him lick his lips.

“All I want for Christmas is to take my future wife to bed and praise her many outstanding qualities.”

“Really?” Her pleased smile let her pink little tongue peek out of a corner. She straddled his lap without hesitation. “That can be arranged. But it depends. Have you been a good boy this year?”

He nodded, spellbound by her game and her fingers tracing over his skin.

“You’re right,” she affirmed, more serious now. “You are incredible, Doctor. You’ve been so amazing this past year… And I can’t wait to marry you. There are no words for how grateful I am, how happy you make me. Except for these three: I love you.”

“Oh, how I love you, Rose,” he exhaled in contentment and adoration. Their lips met, ending their declarations for the moment.

They had more urgent matters to attend to. Namely, it was time for the Doctor to lift up his prezzie in his arms and carry her to their bedroom, where he would unwrap her with adulation and all the joy of spending Christmas in love.

 


End file.
